Presently, there is a proliferation of mobile devices having one or more communications connections. Some communications connections may be dedicated to a single purpose, such as a Global Positioning Satellite (“GPS”) receiver for GPS data, or an Ethernet connection for digital data. Other communications connections may be multipurpose, such as a cellular connection supporting both voice and digital data components.
These mobile devices may include smart-phones, laptop personal computers, wireless enabled tablets, portable audio devices, as well as many others, all with applications requiring data access to local area networks and/or to the Internet. This ecosystem in turn has encourages a proliferation of more and more applications using more and more bandwidth. A user once satisfied with accessing text-only electronic mail, begins to demand fast download bandwidth of still digital images, then digital audio, and then video. As digital capture devices such as still cameras and video cameras are integrated into mobile devices, users begin to demand more and more upload bandwidth.
Since mobile devices by their very nature were meant to operate in different locations and environments, mobile devices are increasing equipped with many different communications connections. A mobile device may have a data connection, perhaps over a 3G cellular communications connection. That same mobile device may have or a data connection using a Wi-Fi communications connection via a local wireless access point. For compatibility and roaming purposes, some mobile devices have both 3G and 4G radios, each with its own communications connection, and may switch between the two, depending on service plan and the base station type of the local cell.
Although a mobile device might be flexible enough to use various communications connections, the mobile device may typically use only one communications connection for a particular application, despite multiple communications connections being available. For example, a user accessing electronic mail via a cellular communications connection might walk into a coffee shop and continue the electronic mail session by switching over to a Wi-Fi communications connection. Thus, the user might use either a cellular or a Wi-Fi communications connection, but not both simultaneously.
Where a mobile device uses multiple communications connections simultaneously, the mobile device does not load balance between those communications connections. For example, a mobile device might use a cellular communications connection to browse the Internet, a Bluetooth connection to receive mouse input, and a Global Positioning Satellite (“GPS”) connection to receive geolocation data. But the mobile device does not use GPS bandwidth for mouse input, if a Bluetooth channel is saturated. Similarly, the mobile device does not use the GPS connection or the Bluetooth connection when the cellular data connection is insufficient. This is because the GPS connection and the Bluetooth connection do not have access to the same endpoints and/or the same data as the cellular communications connection. Specifically, neither the GPS nor the Bluetooth connections have access to Internet servers.
However, there is a class of communications connections with access to the same end points, whose respective networks overlap each other. Some of these communications connections are licensed spectrum connections that make use of public spectrum licensed by a government entity such as the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in the United States, which may include a 4G network cell or a 3G network cell at a particular location. Others are unlicensed spectrum connections that use private bandwidth such as Wi-Fi via a private local access point. In many locations, a mobile device may have access to licensed and unlicensed communications connections, with the same end points. However, presently, a mobile device does not load balance the licensed spectrum and unlicensed spectrum communications connections.